jds labs told me that they ain't important when I was thinking about buying theirs, are they important important?, I want to believe most things that they say, like atom sounds great with any headphone, I saw one amp 3.6 watts - 88 cross talk loads of unnecessary headphones power for 1k vs 1 w - 87 cross talk 99 dollar atom? hmm do amp chips matter alot?
jds labs told me that they ain't important when I was thinking about buying theirs, are they important important?, I want to believe most things that they say, like atom sounds great with any headphone, I saw one amp 3.6 watts - 88 cross talk loads of unnecessary headphones power for 1k vs 1 w - 87 cross talk 99 dollar atom? hmm do amp chips matter alot?
I have no idea what you're talking about. what is crosstalk even doing here?
I get that when we're a little lost we often don't know how to present the issue clearly, but try to put some context or better express what your question actually is.
for starters, the preamp function of the Atom isn't aimed at headphone use and doesn't concern the headphone plug. it's an option to regulate the voltage output at the back when there is a gain issue between a DAC and some speaker amps, for example. for the headphone out, it's a headphone amp pure and simple. so those are 2 different things with different purposes. what use are you planning?
jds labs told me that they ain't important when I was thinking about buying theirs, are they important important?, I want to believe most things that they say, like atom sounds great with any headphone, I saw one amp 3.6 watts - 88 cross talk loads of unnecessary headphones power for 1k vs 1 w - 87 cross talk 99 dollar atom? hmm do amp chips matter alot?
As per castleofargh's post, a preamp feature on a DAC and/or headphone amp is very important, if you need to control level on a power amp or powered speakers. I have several pieces that may help illustrate my point.
iFi Audio iOne: DAC, no preamp, no headphone amp
Korg DS-DAC-100M: DAC, preamp, headphone amp
Schiit Asgard 2: No DAC, preamp, headphone amp
Hafler HA15: No DAC, no preamp, headphone amp
Audiolab 8200CD: DAC, preamp, no headphone amp
exaSound e32: DAC, preamp, headphone amp
These units are not interchangeable in my various systems.
Regarding your other questions, yes, op amp chips matter, but specs for the most part will not tell you about resulting sound quality. A chip needs supporting electronic circuitry, which will determine the final sound quality.
As per castleofargh's post, a preamp feature on a DAC and/or headphone amp is very important, if you need to control level on a power amp or powered speakers. I have several pieces that may help illustrate my point.
iFi Audio iOne: DAC, no preamp, no headphone amp
Korg DS-DAC-100M: DAC, preamp, headphone amp
Schiit Asgard 2: No DAC, preamp, headphone amp
Hafler HA15: No DAC, no preamp, headphone amp
Audiolab 8200CD: DAC, preamp, no headphone amp
These units are not interchangeable in my various systems.
Regarding your other questions, yes, op amp chips matter, but specs for the most part will not tell you about resulting sound quality. A chip needs supporting electronic circuitry, which will determine the final sound quality.
I have four separate systems in the house, plus on-the-go gear.
I'm not up to scratch on current preamp choices. I no longer use a separate preamp in my main system, I use the Audiolab DAC/preamp directly into my power amps. If I were shopping for a dedicated preamp, I would look at Schiit. Their stuff is well done and exceptional value IMO.
The preamp is important depending on the application.
First off, a decent preamp circuit needs to be in there to control the output to your headphone. I wouldn't worry too much about there being a crap preamp system, since the most common problem you'll encounter is imbalance on hgh sensitivity headphones and IEMs. These are dealt with using low gain on analogue preamps or using digital preamps altogether (and then Meier got around the annoying button control by using a knob with an ADC to interpret the movement of the knob to a digital preamp that normally gets its commands from buttons).
As to whether you need a preamp output that bypasses the headphone amp circuit, that depends on whether you need them to control powered monitors or a power amp driving passive speakers. I wouldn't really worry about the quality of each individual circuit on otherwise decent DAC-HPamps or HPamps. If there was one that was noticeably bad it's going to get outed at some point.
I want to believe most things that they say, like atom sounds great with any headphone, I saw one amp 3.6 watts - 88 cross talk loads of unnecessary headphones power for 1k vs 1 w - 87 cross talk 99 dollar atom? hmm do amp chips matter alot?
Being too focused on just the amp output stage chips is kind of like making sure to buy an i9-9900K or i9-9980XE to use with a Z390 or X299 motherboard, and then you just cheap out on a motherboard with craptastic VRM design (plus maybe getting a cheap PSU) that you might not even maintain stock Intel spec boost clocks let alone hit 5.0ghz, even with a custom water loop that includes three 360mm radiators or a 400mm X 400mm outboard radiator.
Or like how there are a lot of RTX 2080 Ti's out there, but they're not all going to maintain 2250mhz like an EVGA Kingpin wtih a binned chip like the FE cards but also has a better VRM, 240mm radiator stock, and can take custom BIOS that overrides the stock power limits.
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